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How can we provide sustainable employment for ASD individuals?

spadger

Does anyone know of any projects running or due to start that focus on training and sustainable employability for autistic individuals? 

Their seems to be little real government policy regarding supporting and assisting the huge volume of unemployed ASD people into sustainable employment despite most of them wanting to be in employment. 

Considering the strengths ASD individuals can offer to employers given the appropriate support and training, it seems to me that society is missing out on a massive valuable untapped resource.

I think the challenge is to convince employers (and society in general) that many unemployed ASD people who want to work also have a lot to offer.

Once employers realise that ASD employees can potentially make their business more profitable then positive progress will be made.

Before that happens though employers themselves need to be educated to understand how to utilise these skills and create an ASD compatible environment.

Even before that educators / facilitators must provide a framework that allows this to happen.

A Danish organisation, Specialisterne (see below) has developed such a framework and I am currently investigating whether alternatives exist in the UK.

Specialisterne (Specialists), framework model assists ASD people into sustainable, professional, rewarding work (mainly testing software and data entry). http://specialistpeople.com/

In recent years they have also developed a franchise style partnership model and as such have expanded into a number of countries the nearest being Scotland. http://www.specialisternescotland.org/

As of this date I believe that they are the only organisation focusing on ASD employability who are currently operating in the UK but if you know any different would love to hear.

Parents

  • As an addendum we need to mention this phenomenon known as the Disability Discrimination Act, and from the way it is treated in the workplace, how the Autism Act will also be regarded.

    Lots of employers take on disabled staff perhaps more to give the impression of being open to different backgrounds than actually genuine. The engineering and computing sectors seem to be good at doing this, but in practice it is not as extensively practiced as might be revealed to the media.

    But the less visible disabilities do not fair so well. Whatever legislation is in place, it is well nigh impossible to monitor discrimination if it is not implicit. Workers will obviously not openly discriminate. But if they don't want the misfit on theirr team there are plenty of subtle ways of bringing about constructive dismissal. The disabled person is forced to withdraw from the job either because their working conditions have become impossible or because they've complained but management and Human Rsources haven't been able to find any evidence.

    Disability discrimination reform gives a nice warm feeling to poliiticians, but it has to be said we Brits wont work with someone if we don't like them. And there isn't really any meaningful legislation to prevent indirect discrimination or constructive dismissal. We are a sad bunch as a nation, and discrimination whether disability, race religion, sexuality or style of dress is rife.

    In education, while an effort is being made to make education and learning accessible to all, conditions for disabled teaching and support staff haven't progressed at all. A survey done in FE and HE in Scotland a few years ago found many disabled teaching staff were being cruelly and vindictively bullied by colleagues because they were cripples or less than adequate, in full view of colleagues and management, with nothing being done.

Reply

  • As an addendum we need to mention this phenomenon known as the Disability Discrimination Act, and from the way it is treated in the workplace, how the Autism Act will also be regarded.

    Lots of employers take on disabled staff perhaps more to give the impression of being open to different backgrounds than actually genuine. The engineering and computing sectors seem to be good at doing this, but in practice it is not as extensively practiced as might be revealed to the media.

    But the less visible disabilities do not fair so well. Whatever legislation is in place, it is well nigh impossible to monitor discrimination if it is not implicit. Workers will obviously not openly discriminate. But if they don't want the misfit on theirr team there are plenty of subtle ways of bringing about constructive dismissal. The disabled person is forced to withdraw from the job either because their working conditions have become impossible or because they've complained but management and Human Rsources haven't been able to find any evidence.

    Disability discrimination reform gives a nice warm feeling to poliiticians, but it has to be said we Brits wont work with someone if we don't like them. And there isn't really any meaningful legislation to prevent indirect discrimination or constructive dismissal. We are a sad bunch as a nation, and discrimination whether disability, race religion, sexuality or style of dress is rife.

    In education, while an effort is being made to make education and learning accessible to all, conditions for disabled teaching and support staff haven't progressed at all. A survey done in FE and HE in Scotland a few years ago found many disabled teaching staff were being cruelly and vindictively bullied by colleagues because they were cripples or less than adequate, in full view of colleagues and management, with nothing being done.

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